Craig Baird has completed the perfect weekend for Erebus Motorsport GT taking out the second Australian GT Championship, presented by Pirelli race at the Clipsal 500 today, whilst former Formula 1 star, Christian Klien was uber-impressive setting a new lap record as he elevated himself to the podium.
Baird picked up where he left off yesterday and skipped away at the start. In today’s event, things weren’t 100 percent the way of the Erebus Motorsport team, with Klark Quinn exiting the compulsory timed pitstop narrowly in front.
The Kiwi – who is also undefeated in Carrera Cup this weekend – made short work of Quinn to get himself into the lead. From there, he scythed his way through the traffic to cross the line at the end of the 30 minutes six seconds in front of Quinn.
Klien started the race from fifth on the grid and had to work his way past two contenders to get himself into a position to end the day on the podium.
Not content with that, he set sail for Quinn – in the process smashing the lap record – making the new benchmark 1:20.7152.
In the stirring final stanza of the race, Klien closed down on Quinn and was setting himself for a final corner lunge, when a fuel issue cut power to his yellow and black AMG Customer Sports gullwing.
He was able to hang onto third place in the race.
Erebus Motorsport GT has continued it’s spectacular start to the 2013 season with the double victory over the weekend – adding the Murray Walker Trophy to the Bathurst 12 Hour victory trophy.
FROM BENEATH THE GULLWING:
Craig Baird – #63 Erebus Motorsport SLS AMG GT3 – 1st:
“Today was a tough race, it was a hard battle between Klark and myself, but it was a dream to drive a car such as the SLS AMG GT3 – it took a bit to get used to it, but the balance of modern racecars is very much similar regardless of the car you’re driving.
“Getting out of the pits behind Klark, I knew I had to get around him quickly and as it turned out, there were yellow flags everywhere. From that perspective it was critical that I got past him as early as possible.
“He gave me a lot of racing room, which he would have been entitled to be a little more defensive, but to his credit, he wasn’t.
“What an awesome weekend it has been, the Gullwing was faultless all weekend and it was a real honour to be part of such a professional outfit as Erebus Motorsport and be accepted by the team so readily.”
Christian Klien – #47 Erebus Motorsport SLS AMG GT3 – 3rd:
“We got away at the start and took a couple of laps to get by the cars in front of me. Once I got past them I was able to settle in and start chasing down Klark.
“I was able to really go for it and put my foot down. To get the lap record was a pleasing end to the weekend, but the time early in the race cost me.
“On the very last lap I was heading towards the final turn and we developed a fuel problem. I coasted across the line in the end and got third place, but it was really close – just half a second in the end.
“It’s been a great weekend and a great debut with Erebus Motorsport. The team has been fantastic to work with and the cars were just beautiful all weekend.”
